Predators using dating apps to target single mothers for child abuse, global study reveals

Debi Fry, Childlight’s Global Director of Data and Professor of International Child Protection Research at University of Edinburgh.

Sexual predators may target single mothers on online dating apps and groom them for access to their children, a new report has revealed.

Two thirds of men who have sexually offended against children use dating sites with many using these apps daily, new research by the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, hosted by the University of Edinburgh and University of New South Wales, has found.

Men who sexually offend against children are nearly four times more likely to use dating sites than non-offenders, the research found, prompting calls for stronger regulation of online dating apps, now used by some 381m people.

Most dating apps have inadequate identity checks for users and report authors have called for ID checks and AI tools to detect predatory behaviour to make these platforms safer.

Almost two thirds (66%) of men who sexually offended against children used dating platforms with more than one in five (22%) using them daily, the research found.

And 11.5% of men surveyed admitted having sexual feelings towards children, while 11% confessed to sexual offences against minors.

The research findings are based on a survey of about 5,000 men in the UK, the US and Australia.

Industry investigation

The report, Swipe Wrong, is part of a broader investigation into the multi-billion-dollar industry of child sexual exploitation and abuse, which financially benefits perpetrators, organised crime and mainstream companies, Childlight said.

Mainstream payment transfer firms and social media platforms, where illegal child sexual abuse images are present and where abuse-related traffic can increase advertising revenues, are benefitting financially from technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse of children, Childlight found.

Sexual exploitation and abuse of children is now a pandemic, Childlight said, affecting over 300m every year. But education, legislation and technological measures can help prevent it.

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Report co-author Professor Michael Salter, director of the Childlight East Asia and Pacific Hub at University of New South Wales, said: “Our findings provide clear evidence that dating apps lack adequate child protection measures, and loopholes are exploited by abusers to target single parents and their children.”

“There’s no reason why the robust user identification methods we have in other industries, such as banking and gambling, should not also have to be adopted by dating app platforms,” he said.

Debi Fry, Childlight’s Global Director of Data and Professor of International Child Protection Research at University of Edinburgh, said: “Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a global public health emergency that requires emergency measures but it’s preventable. We must mobilise globally, focusing not just on reactive law enforcement but on prevention strategies tackling underlying determinants of abuse — including financial and technological ecosystems sustaining it.”